‘Agar shor machaya…’: Delhi man recalls wife’s threat after pouring boiling oil, chilli powder on him
New Delhi– A shocking act of domestic violence unfolded in Delhi’s Madangir neighborhood when a woman allegedly doused her sleeping husband with scalding oil and chili powder in the dead of night, then warned him against crying out under threat of more harm, authorities revealed Wednesday.
The 28-year-old victim, Dinesh Kumar, a pharmaceutical company employee, recounted waking around 3:15 a.m. on October 2 to excruciating burns on his torso and face. According to his police complaint, his wife, Sadhna, stood over him with a vessel of boiling oil she had just poured, followed by a handful of red chili powder scattered onto the fresh wounds. “Agar shor machaya to aur garam tel daal doongi (I will pour more hot oil if you raise alarm),” she allegedly snarled, as reported by news agency PTI.
The couple, married for eight years and hailing from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, shared a rented room in the Kotwali Dehat police station jurisdiction, where Kumar slept beside their four-year-old daughter. The altercation appears rooted in ongoing marital strife; police noted Sadhna had lodged complaints against her husband at the Crime Against Women (CAW) Cell two years prior, which was amicably settled, only for her to file another recently.
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Kumar’s agonized cries pierced the silence despite the threat, rousing the landlord who, with family, forced entry into the locked room. Anjali, the landlord’s daughter, described the chaos to PTI: her father dashed upstairs after hearing the disturbance, banging on the secured door. When it finally swung open, Kumar lay convulsing in agony while Sadhna concealed herself inside. She insisted on transporting him to medical care herself but veered in the wrong direction, arousing suspicions. The landlord intervened, securing an auto-rickshaw to ferry Kumar alone to Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital. He was soon transferred to Safdarjung Hospital for specialized burn treatment.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ankit Chauhan detailed the horror: “He awoke to a burning sensation, discovering his wife clutching hot oil. She hurled chili powder at him and vowed more if he alerted anyone.”
Alerted by a medico-legal report from the hospital, officers at Ambedkar Nagar police station registered a case under pertinent sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita based on Kumar’s account and preliminary probes. Sadhna remains at large, with no arrest yet.
This brutal episode underscores the perils of unresolved domestic tensions in urban households, where simmering resentments can erupt into life-altering violence. Investigations continue to unravel the full context of the couple’s fractious union, marked by frequent quarrels over household matters.